Apple has announced the acquisition of Primephonic, and will soon use the purchase to offer its own specialised classical music app.
Primephonic is a well-established classical music streaming service that we reviewed a couple of years back, praising its powerful search system, curated content, and premium-quality playback.
In an accompanying press release, Apple promises that it will bring “a significantly improved classical music experience” to Apple Music subscribers, starting with “Primephonic playlists and exclusive audio content”.
Sometime next year, however, there will be a dedicated Apple Music Classical experience on offer, with “the best features of Primephonic, including better browsing and search capabilities by composer and by repertoire, detailed displays of classical music metadata, plus new features and benefits.”
Apple has moved fast to remove Primephonic from general availability to new subscribers, and the stand-alone app will be will be taken offline altogether from September 7. To make up for this – and to encourage a few extra subs, no doubt – Apple is offering existing Primephonic subscribers six months of Apple Music for free.
Apple has been aggressively pushing its music streaming service in recent months. Back in May, it upgraded Apple Music to a Lossless Audio format for free, as well as adding Spatial Audio to the package.